Chapter 4

Tweedledum And Tweedledee

They were standing under a tree, each with an arm round the
other's neck, and Alice knew which was which in a moment,
because one of them had «Dum» embroidered on
his collar, and the other «Dee.» «I
suppose they've each got “Tweedle” round
at the back of the collar,» she said to herself.

They stood so still that she quite forgot they were alive, and
she was just looking round to see if the word
“Tweedle” was written at the back of each
collar, when she was startled by a voice coming from the one marked
«Dum.»

«If you think we're wax-works,» he said,
«you ought to pay, you know. Wax-works weren't made to
be looked at for nothing, nohow!»

«Contrariwise,» added the one marked
«Dee,» «if you think we're alive,
you ought to speak.»

«I'm sure I'm very
sorry,» was all Alice could say; for the words of the old
song kept ringing through her head like the ticking of a clock, and
she could hardly help saying them out loud: —

«Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled his nice new rattle.

Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
As black as a tar-barrel;
Which frightened both the heroes so,
They quite forgot their quarrel.»

«Contrariwise,» continued Tweedledee, «if it
was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it
isn't, it ain't. That's logic.»

«I was thinking,» Alice said very politely,
«which is the best way out of this wood: it's getting
so dark. Would you tell me, please?»

But the little men only looked at each other and grinned.

They looked so exactly like a couple of great schoolboys, that
Alice couldn't help pointing her finger at Tweedledum, and
saying «First Boy!»

«Nohow!» Tweedledum cried out briskly, and shut his
mouth up again with a snap.

«Next Boy!» said Alice, passing on to Tweedledee,
though she felt quite certain he would only shout out
«Contrariwise!» and so he did.

«you've been wrong!» cried Tweedledum.
«The first thing in a visit is to say “How d'ye
do?” and shake hands!» And here the two brothers gave
each other a hug, and then they held out the two hands that were
free, to shake hands with her.

Alice did not like shaking hands with either of them first, for
fear of hurting the other one's feelings; so, as the best way
out of the difficulty, she took hold of both hands at once: the
next moment they were dancing round in a ring. This seemed quite
natural (she remembered afterwards), and she was not even surprised
to hear music playing: it seemed to come from the tree under which
they were dancing, and it was done (as well as she could make it
out) by the branches rubbing one across the other, like fiddles and
fiddle-sticks.

«But it certainly was funny,» (Alice said
afterwards, when she was telling her sister the history of all
this,) «to find myself singing “Here We Go Round
The Mulberry Bush.” I don't know when I began it,
but somehow I felt as if I'd been singing it a long
long time!»

The other two dancers were fat, and very soon out of breath.
«Four times round is enough for one dance,» Tweedledum
panted out, and they left off dancing as suddenly as they had
begun: the music stopped at the same moment.

Then they let go of Alice's hands, and stood looking at
her for a minute: there was a rather awkward pause, as Alice
didn't know how to begin a conversation with people she had
just been dancing with. «It would never do to say “How
d'ye do?” now,» she said to herself:
«we seem to have got beyond that, somehow!»

«I hope you're not much tired?» she said at
last.

«Nohow. And thank you very much for
asking,» said Tweedledum.

«So much obliged!» added Tweedledee. «You like
poetry?»

«Ye-es, pretty well — some poetry,»
Alice said doubtfully. «Would you tell me which road leads
out of the wood?»

«What shall I repeat to her?» said Tweedledee,
looking round at Tweedledum with great solemn eyes, and not
noticing Alice's question.

«“The Walrus And The Carpenter” is
the longest,» Tweedledum replied, giving his brother an
affectionate hug.

Tweedledee began instantly:

«The sun was shining — »

Here Alice ventured to interrupt him. «If it's
very long,» she said, as politely as she could,
«would you please tell me first which road — »

Tweedledee smiled gently, and began again:

«The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright —
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done —
“It's very rude of him,” she said,
“To come and spoil the fun!”

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying over head —
There were no birds to fly.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
“If this were only cleared away,”
They said, “it would be grand!”

“If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,” the Walrus said,
“That they could get it clear?”
“I doubt it,” said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

“O Oysters, come and walk with
us!”
The Walrus did beseech.
“A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each.”

The eldest Oyster looked at him.
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head —
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.

But four young oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat —
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more —
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.

“The time has come,” the Walrus
said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —
Of cabbages — and kings —
And why the sea is boiling hot —
And whether pigs have wings.”

“But wait a bit,” the Oysters
cried,
“Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!”
“No hurry!” said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.

“A loaf of bread,” the Walrus
said,
“Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed —
Now if you're ready Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed.”

“But not on us!” the Oysters
cried,
Turning a little blue,
“After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!”
“The night is fine,” the Walrus said
“Do you admire the view?”

“It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!”
The Carpenter said nothing but
“Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf — I've had to ask you twice!”

“It seems a shame,” the Walrus
said,
“To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!”
The Carpenter said nothing but
“The butter's spread too thick!”

“I weep for you,” the Walrus said.
“I deeply sympathize.”
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size.
Holding his pocket handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.

“O Oysters,” said the Carpenter.
“you've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?”
But answer came there none —
And that was scarcely odd, because
they'd eaten every one.»

«I like the Walrus best,» said Alice: «because
you see he was a little sorry for the poor
oysters.»

«He ate more than the Carpenter, though,» said
Tweedledee. «You see he held his handkerchief in front, so
that the Carpenter couldn't count how many he took:
contrariwise.»

«That was mean!» Alice said indignantly. «Then
I like the Carpenter best — if he didn't eat so many as
the Walrus.»

«But he ate as many as he could get,» said
Tweedledum.

This was a puzzler. After a pause, Alice began, «Well!
They were both very unpleasant characters — »
Here she checked herself in some alarm, at hearing something that
sounded to her like the puffing of a large steam-engine in the wood
near them, though she feared it was more likely to be a wild beast.
«Are there any lions or tigers about here?» she asked
timidly.

«It's only the Red King snoring,» said
Tweedledee.

«Come and look at him!» the brothers cried, and they
each took one of Alice's hands, and led her up to where the
King was sleeping.

«Isn't he a lovely sight?» said
Tweedledum.

Alice couldn't say honestly that he was. He had a tall red
night-cap on, with a tassel, and he was lying crumpled up into a
sort of untidy heap, and snoring loud — «fit to snore his
head off!» as Tweedledum remarked.

«I'm afraid he'll catch cold with
lying on the damp grass,» said Alice, who was a very
thoughtful little girl.

«He's dreaming now,» said Tweedledee:
«and what do you think he's dreaming about?»

Alice said «Nobody can guess that.»

«Why, about you!» Tweedledee exclaimed,
clapping his hands triumphantly. «And if he left off dreaming
about you, where do you suppose you'd be?»

«Where I am now, of course,» said Alice.

«Not you!» Tweedledee retorted contemptuously.
«You'd be nowhere. Why, you're only a sort of
thing in his dream!»

«If that there King was to wake,» added Tweedledum,
«you'd go out — bang! — just like a
candle!»

«I shouldn't!» Alice exclaimed indignantly.
«Besides, if I'm only a sort of thing in his
dream, what are you, I should like to know?»

«Ditto» said Tweedledum.

«Ditto, ditto» cried Tweedledee.

He shouted this so loud that Alice couldn't help saying,
«Hush! You'll be waking him, I'm afraid,
if you make so much noise.»

«Well, it no use your talking about waking
him,» said Tweedledum, «when you're only one of
the things in his dream. You know very well you're not
real.»

«If I wasn't real,» Alice
said — half-laughing though her tears, it all seemed so
ridiculous — «I shouldn't be able to
cry.»

«I hope you don't suppose those are real
tears?» Tweedledum interrupted in a tone of great
contempt.

«I know they're talking nonsense,» Alice
thought to herself: «and it's foolish to cry about
it.» So she brushed away her tears, and went on as cheerfully
as she could. «At any rate I'd better be
getting out of the wood, for really it's coming on very dark.
Do you think it's going to rain?»

Tweedledum spread a large umbrella over himself and his brother,
and looked up into it. «No, I don't think it is,»
he said: «at least — not under here.
Nohow.»

«But it may rain outside?»

«It may — if it chooses,» said Tweedledee:
«we've no objection. Contrariwise.»

«Selfish things!» thought Alice, and she was just
going to say «Good-night» and leave them, when
Tweedledum sprang out from under the umbrella and seized her by the
wrist.

«Do you see that?» he said, in a voice
choking with passion, and his eyes grew large and yellow all in a
moment, as he pointed with a trembling finger at a small white
thing lying under the tree.

«It's only a rattle,» Alice said, after a
careful examination of the little white thing. «Not a
rattleSNAKE, you know,» she added hastily, thinking that he
was frightened: «only an old rattle — quite old and
broken.»

«I knew it was!» cried Tweedledum, beginning to
stamp about wildly and tear his hair. «It's spoilt, of
course!» Here he looked at Tweedledee, who immediately sat
down on the ground, and tried to hide himself under the
umbrella.

Alice laid her hand upon his arm, and said in a soothing tone,
«You needn't be so angry about an old
rattle.»

«But it isn't old!» Tweedledum cried, in a
greater fury than ever. «It's new, I tell you — I
bought it yesterday — my nice new rattle!» and
his voice rose to a perfect scream.

All this time Tweedledee was trying his best to fold up the
umbrella, with himself in it: which was such an extraordinary thing
to do, that it quite took off Alice's attention from the
angry brother. But he couldn't quite succeed, and it ended in
his rolling over, bundled up in the umbrella, with only his head
out: and there he lay, opening and shutting his mouth and his large
eyes — «looking more like a fish than anything
else,» Alice thought.

«Of course you agree to have a battle?» Tweedledum
said in a calmer tone.

«I suppose so,» the other sulkily replied, as he
crawled out of the umbrella: «only she must help us
to dress up, you know.»

So the two brothers went off hand-in-hand into the wood, and
returned in a minute with their arms full of things — such as
bolsters, blankets, hearth-rugs, table-cloths, dish-covers and
coal-scuttles. «I hope you're a good hand at pinning
and tying strings?» Tweedledum remarked. «Every one of
these things has got to go on, somehow or other.»

Alice said afterwards she had never seen such a fuss made about
anything in all her life — the way those two bustled
about — and the quantity of things they put on — and the
trouble they gave her in tying strings and fastening
buttons — «Really they'll be more like bundles of
old clothes that anything else, by the time they're
ready!» she said to herself, as she arranged a bolster round
the neck of Tweedledee, «to keep his head from being cut
off,» as he said.

«You know,» he added very gravely, «it's
one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a
battle — to get one's head cut off.»

Alice laughed aloud: but she managed to turn it into a cough,
for fear of hurting his feelings.

«Do I look very pale?» said Tweedledum, coming up to
have his helmet tied on. (He called it a helmet, though it
certainly looked much more like a saucepan.)

«Well — yes — a little,» Alice
replied gently.

«I'm very brave generally,» he went
on in a low voice: «only to-day I happen to have a
headache.»

«And I've got a toothache!» said
Tweedledee, who had overheard the remark. «I'm
far worse off than you!»

«Then you'd better not fight to-day,» said
Alice, thinking it a good opportunity to make peace.

«We must have a bit of a fight, but I don't
care about going on long,» said Tweedledum.
«What's the time now?»

Tweedledee looked at his watch, and said «Half-past
four.»

«Let's fight till six, and then have dinner,»
said Tweedledum.

«Very well,» the other said, rather sadly:
«and she can watch us — only you'd better
not come very close,» he added: «I generally
hit everything I can see — when I get really
excited.»

«And I hit everything within reach,» cried
Tweedledum, «whether I can see it or not!»

Alice laughed. «You must hit the trees pretty
often, I should think,» she said.

Tweedledum looked round him with a satisfied smile. «I
don't suppose,» he said, «there'll be a
tree left standing, for ever so far round, by the time we've
finished!»

«And all about a rattle!» said Alice, still hoping
to make them a little ashamed of fighting for such a
trifle.

«I shouldn't have minded it so much,» said
Tweedledum, «if it hadn't been a new one.»

«I wish the monstrous crow would come!» though
Alice.

«There's only one sword, you know,» Tweedledum
said to his brother: «but you can have the
umbrella — it's quite as sharp. Only we must begin quick.
It's getting as dark as it can.»

«And darker.» said Tweedledee.

It was getting dark so suddenly that Alice thought there must be
a thunderstorm coming on. «What a thick black cloud that
is!» she said. «And how fast it comes! Why, I do
believe it's got wings!»

«It's the crow!» Tweedledum cried out in a
shrill voice of alarm: and the two brothers took to their heels and
were out of sight in a moment.

Alice ran a little way into the wood, and stopped under a large
tree. «It can never get at me here,» she
thought: «it's far too large to squeeze itself in among
the trees. But I wish it wouldn't flap its wings so — it
makes quite a hurricane in the wood — here's
somebody's shawl being blown away!»